The women, who are employed by Cumbria County Council as care assistants, home carers, kitchen assistants, cooks and night care assistants won their claim of pay discrimination at a tribunal in March 2006, backed by trade union Unison.

Dave Prentis, Unison general secretary, said: “We’re obviously delighted that the tribunal is making Cumbria stump up the back pay that is owed. But it is regrettable that the council would not settle through valid negotiation; instead we all had to invest time, money and stress in going through the legal system.”

The case is a result of historically agreed bonus schemes; some male employees enjoyed bonuses that female staff in equivalent jobs did not. Others enjoyed enhancements to hourly rates of pay when working weekends or evenings, when women working similar hours received only a basic rate of pay.

Unison argued successfully to a tribunal in autumn 2005 that this was an unlawful breach of the 1970 Equal Pay Act.